Shoe or boot



(No Model.)

B. I. BROWN.

' SHOE OR BOOT.

No. 342,679. Patented May 25, 1886.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFicE.

EDW'ARD IRVING BROWN, OF ROOKLAND, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE- ASSIGN- MENTS, TO JOSEPH R..LEESON, OF NEWTON, AND WILLIAM BENNETT ARNOLD AND GEORGE AUGUSTUS CHAMBERLAIN, BOTH OF NORTH AB- IN GTON MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE OR BOOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 342,679. dated May 25', 1886. Application filed March 17, 1886. Serial No. 195,513. (No model.)

To 04% whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, EDWARD IRVING BROWN, of Rockland, in the county of Plymouth, of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invent- 5 ed a new and useful Improvement in Shoes or Boots, 850.; and I do hereby declare the same to be described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which Figure 1 is a bottom view of a shoe or boot having its outer sole sewed to the insole and upper by thread of my improved kind to be described. Fig. 2 is similar view of a shoe or boot having its welt, for connecting its 1 outer sole to the inner sole and upper, sewed to such insole and upper by the said thread. Fig. 3 is a side view of the thread as it appears before being covered with shoe-makers wax,Fig. 4 being a side view of it as so cov- 2 erefl, such Figs. 3 and 4 being on an enlarged sca e.

The object of my improvement, the nature of which is defined in the claims hereinafter presented, is to combine with the shoe or boot 2 5 and the waxed flaxen or vegetable thread used in connecting together parts thereof a metallic wire or wires, either braided or twisted into the said vegetable thread, and with it covered with shoe-makers wax.

It has been found very difficult, if not practicallyimpossible, to sew by asewing-machine, especially of the kind known as the McKay Sewing-Machine, a metallic wire into the parts of a shoe or other article of leather to be con- 5 nected by sewing, owing to the difficulty of looping the wire and drawing it into the work. I have found that by combining with the waxed thread of flax or other vegetable or animal material-as silk, for instance-a fine wire or 0 wires braided or twisted into the said thread, and with it subsequently waxed, I not only can re-enforce and greatly improve and strengthen the thread of animal or vegetable matter, but can use it in a sewing-machine with advan- 5 tage, and without any or scarcely any of the difficulties attending on the use of a single wire, or a cord composed of wires either twisted or braided together. The shoe or article in which my improved manufacture of thread is used in sewing together parts thereof becomes much stronger, more durable, and not nearly so liable to rip in the parts connected by such compound thread than would be the case were an ordinary waxed thread composed of a vegetable or animal material only used.

The improved thread consists of one or more strands, a, of flax, cotton, or silk, or other suitable vegetable or animal material, and one one or more fine wires, 6, either twisted or braided together, and subsequently saturated or covered with shoe-makers wax S.

In Fig. l the sewing of the outer sole, A, to the insole and upper is shown at s, the improved thread used in effecting such being of a strandor strands of wire and another or others of a vegetable or animal material twisted or braided'together, and covered with and permeated by shoe-makers wax. So in Fig. 2 thev sewing of the welt B to the insole c and the upper D is represented at s, such being supposed to be accomplished with the compound thread, as described.

In sewing by hand with my improved thread, which I purpose to term Metalin Thread, to distinguish it from the ordinary flaxen or vegetable thread used in shoe-making, no bristles need in most, if not all, cases be used with the thread to get it into and through the awl-holes, the inherent rigidity of the thread sufficing to admit of the thread being inserted through the said holes.

The wax by covering the wire not only enables it to be easily drawn into the awl-holes of the work, but covers it therein, so as to prevent it, in a great degree, from oxidating, thereby causing the work or shoe to last much longer, and be less liable to rip or become ripped than would be the case were the wire omitted from the thread and wax.

I claim- 0' 1. As an improved manufacture, a boot or shoe having its outer sole or the welt thereof secured to the insole and upper with thread' and one or more strands of flax or a vegetacomposed of shoe-makers wax,a metallic wire ble or animal material, combined substantially or wires, and one or more strands of flax or a as described. vegetable or animal material, all being sub- EDWARD Witnesses:

BETH 0. H0 WLAND, MARY H. BLACKMAN.

IRVING BROWN.

5 stantially as set forth.

2. The described improved sewing-thread, composed of shoe-makers wax, a wire or wires, 

